2013 Resident Volunteer Award: Katrina B. Mitchell

Katrina B. Mitchell, MD, of New York, NY, received the 2013 Surgical Volunteerism Award for outreach during residency for her contributions toward improving surgical care and education in Tanzania. As a general surgery resident at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, Dr. Mitchell has spent two years as a Weill Cornell Global Health Fellow at the Weill Medical College of Weill Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza, Tanzania. There, she helped create a surgical curriculum for medical students, and raised funds and spearheaded the effort to establish at Weill Medical College the Canadian Network for International Surgery's Essential Surgical Skills workshop. She also volunteered with the African Medical Education and Research Foundation (AMREF) Flying Doctors to provide surgical care in remote villages, and served as a volunteer flight doctor for its continent-wide emergency air evacuation service. Dr. Mitchell spent an additional year collaborating with Weill Bugando surgical partners, the ELMA Foundation, and the Tanzania Ministry of Health to lay the groundwork and secure funds for the establishment of the first multi-disciplinary burn unit to serve the 15-million population Lake Zone region. An active member of a mission outreach group in New York, Dr. Mitchell is currently working to provide support to the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti.